1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet material type detecting method for detecting the type of a sheet material, a sheet material type detector and an image forming apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally a method for detecting a sheet material type (including a paper medium and a transparent resin sheet) in an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a printer and a facsimile is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,497.
In a method for detecting a sheet material type, some kind of numeric code or symbol is affixed beforehand to a sheet material, information including the numeric code is read by a sensor provided in a printer, and the printer uses the information to optimize a print mode (hereinafter, referred to as a “marking scheme”).
However, in the marking scheme, it is not possible to identify a sheet material type when a numeric code or the like is not affixed on the sheet material.